my electrician walked out on me

Quote:

Originally Posted by danxp

hi...

my electrician walked out on me because i asked him to itemize everything since i wasn't happy about his "extras" that he's charging me for... i already paid him $9500 of the original $10k bid but he only finished about 80% of the work...

there were a number of extras that he recommended as well as some that i requested... he decided to jack up the bid to $16.3k... which included a charge of $1650 for cat6 wiring to 6 locations, $500 for a dedicated 15a circuit for a whirlpool bath... there were 7 more switches, 13 more receptacles, 5 more recessed lights, 16 more lighting locations and 1 more smoke detector... is that $6k worth of "extras"?

anyway, i've decided to go with someone else to finish up but so far nobody wants to finish up others' work... worst case i'm thinking is i'll do it myself... i already wired a 15a dedicated circuit for my whirlpool tub with no issues so i think i'm up to the challenge...

i just need some guidance to make sure i don't electrocute myself...

thanks

I wrote the underline part .,,

Very simple alot of electricians will not touch it becasue we do not know what they done with it and they will not put their name on that job in case something is screw up.

my electrician walked out on me

Quote:

Originally Posted by zpm

It was just an option for the OP. If you don't like the option, don't use it. You don't know me. There was no need for the schoolyard insult.

OK.

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Sometimes I feel like if I answer any more questions it is like someone trying to climb over a fence to jump off a bridge and me giving them a boost.
Answers based on the 2008 & 2011 NEC.

my electrician walked out on me

you electricians should be happy to itemize any time a homeowner asks.

Just add in a line for Project Management. x hours times your standard hourly rate. additional hours for PM added as needed.

that said, itemizing should only be asked for before work has been signed off to start.

most of the itemized quotes i have seen for electrical show miscellaneous materials. the only time a specific material is listed if it is uncommon for that vendor to use and they need to get a whole case/spool etc like gel filled cat5/6 or dual sheilded coax or a particular NEMA enclosure or the like. standard cable, boxes, wire nuts and all that crap goes under the misc line or is included with the lines for each run.

my electrician walked out on me

To that guy who said that he always gets an itemized bill when he buys something, does he get one from a restaurant? A supermarket? Does he write Coca-Cola and have them itemize where every cent went on the bottle of soda that he bought?

I can't remember the last time I received an itemized bill, I would never expect one, and as an electrician I would never give one. Usually a customer asking for an itemized bill is a sure sign of them being a pain in the ass who is going to complain about the price the entire time, so I will always say NO to itemizing and I will also add a 20% "Pain in the ass" charge to the total. Either I don't get the job and I'm happy or I get the job and I have extra money to buy headache medicine.

As for the OP, I am an NJ licensed contractor, what you have done by obtaining a permit yourself while hiring someone to do the work is illegal. It's time for you to cut your losses. The reason you can't get another contractor to finish is because you outted yourself as a bad customer and no one wants to deal with you.

What you did was wrong, you should have been on top of the extra work instead of expecting it to be for free. You offended your contractor for no reason, it's time you buy him a couple cases and apologize.

Just so you know, the whole reason why contractors bid low on the job and then look for extras is because most customers only care about price, they go with the lowest bid even if the higher bid has more value to it (such as more work done or better quality material, etc.)

my electrician walked out on me

So when the job is done and the invoice is handed over to the customer and they then inform you that they want it broken down, then you should add more to the job? Yeah, that will go over well.

I've done that, and it works out well. I'll usually explain that we don't don't itemize our invoice as company policy and go into a little bit of detail why. But sometimes I am feeling frisky so I'll tell them that I'll happily itemize it but it'll be an extra 4 hours of time added on. They never go for it, but they also stop asking for it to be done

my electrician walked out on me

We are specifically told to bid on the print, do not add what is necessary by code just for that reason.

A perfect example is show window lighting. There are never receptacle to cover the show windows and everyone knows we need them by code, but we don't price those as it will increase the bottom line and the GC will then not get the job.

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Answers based on the National Electric Code. Always check local amendments.

That is the same as what you get from a restaurant or supermarket. That is not an issue, I have no problem giving that to the customer.

The problem is when they want everything itemized, as in material, markup, labor, etc.

Not only does that take time, but it reveals all of my costs. When the customer sees that, they usually think that money all goes right into my pocket and think to themselves "He makes way too much money!" and then complain.